Analog delay

A little over a year ago, Madison-Milwaukee garage-pop band The Midwest Beat rented out the historic Gates Of Heaven synagogue in James Madison Park for three frigid days of on-location recording. Because of the space’s natural reverb and the recording techniques of the record’s producer, analog tape purist Kyle Motor, a live feel was guaranteed, and overdubbing later was nearly impossible. The band will finally unveil the fruits of its labor—At The Gates—with a release show this Friday at Mickey’s Tavern. How did an album that was essentially tracked in three days take nearly 14 months to get out to the public? Decider caught up with band members Matt Joyce and Logan Kayne for advice on how to delay the release of an album (and here's a free stream of one of its songs, "Late At Night").

"Late At Night" by The Midwest Beat

Keep the cooks
Singer-guitarists Joyce and Ryan Adams and singer-bassist Kayne all wrote songs for the new album, and drummer Chris Capelle had major input on the arrangements. Described succinctly by Kayne as “kind of fuckin’ bonkers,” the result finds the band effortlessly experimenting with genres ranging from ragtime and doo-wop to full-on psychedelia, all while keeping the band's signature soaring harmonies and total devotion to the pop-song arrangement. The split songwriting duties also lead to disagreements on what should or shouldn’t be included in the final cut. “We all tend to butt heads a little bit,” Kayne says.

“Yeah, we’re all pretty opinionated,” Joyce concurs. “I might not have the best quality-control filter. I like to put things out and then keep moving forward. But if the person who wrote the song doesn’t like the song anymore, that’s their baby, and I’m not going to tell them that it needs to be on the album. I’m not going to force anybody’s hand.” The band eventually narrowed a 12-song tracklist was down to 9. “We didn’t force enough hands,” Kayne concludes.

Re-release some old stuff instead
The band’s self-titled six-song EP (recorded by Motor in 2007) got picked up by Milwaukee’s Dusty Medical Records and was re-released as a double 7-inch last year, which would otherwise have been a good time to release At The Gates. “We were like, well, why don’t we take care of one thing at a time,” Kayne says.

Have a member tour with (and then permanently join) another band
Next, Adams began touring as a drummer for Milwaukee garage two-steppers The Goodnight Loving before joining that band full-time. “Ryan left right after we had a thousand copies of the CD pressed,” Kayne says. “He was on tour through October and November into December. We didn’t play much then, but that didn’t necessarily stop the record from coming out.”

Use someone else’s money whenever possible
Just like everything else nowadays, it all comes down to the economy. “We were trying to get somebody to put it out for a long time,” Joyce says. “We also wanted to put it out on full-length vinyl. That didn’t happen.” They finally landed a CD deal with Green Bay label Duck On Monkey Records, owned by family of friends in another band, Beach Patrol. “We’re actually the first people not of the family to have something out,” Kayne says. The Midwest Beat also has tentative plans for a 7-inch in the not-too-distant future on Milwaukee’s Tax Return Records. “They’re music fans from Milwaukee who use their tax returns to make records—literally,” Kayne says. So start looking for that sometime in April—or maybe a little later.